If your VisualNEO Win application needs to display a count up (or down) of time elapsed (or remaining) … in hours, minutes and seconds … formated as HH:MM:SS … the idea/subroutine described below will help you to do this.

First, create a Timer object called tc … configure it so …

• Start: is set to Wait for “TimerStart” action
• Variable: (to store elapsed time) is set to [tcElapsed]

… and its Timer Interval section contains …

... forced stop ?
If "[tcEndIt]" "=" "True"
  TimerStop "tc"
  If "[tcDoneRoutine]" "<>" ""
    GoSub "[tcDoneRoutine]"
  EndIf
  Return
EndIf
... counting up or down ?
If "[tcStart]" "<" "[tcStop]"
   TimerStop "tc"
   If "[tcDoneRoutine]" "" ""
     GoSub "[tcDoneRoutine]"
   EndIf
   Return
EndIf
Else
   ... [tcStop] exceeded ?
   Math "trunc([tcElapsed]/1000)" "0" "[tcElapsedSeconds]"
   Math "[tcStart]-[tcElapsedSeconds]" "0" "[tcNow]"
   If "[tcNow]" "<" "[tcStop]"
      TimerStop "tc"
      If "[tcDoneRoutine]" "" ""
          GoSub "[tcDoneRoutine]"
      EndIf
      Return
   EndIf
EndIf
... format [tcNow]
Math "trunc([tcNow]/60)" "0" "[tcMM1]"
...
Math "[tcNow]-([tcMM1]*60)" "0" "[tcSS1]"
If "[tcSS1]" "<" "10"
   SetVar "[tcSS]" "!0[tcSS1]"
Else
   SetVar "[tcSS]" "[tcSS1]"
EndIf
...
Math "trunc([tcMM1]/60)" "0" "[tcHH]"
Math "[tcMM1]-([tcHH]*60)" "0" "[tcMM1]"
If "[tcMM1]" "<" "10"
   SetVar "[tcMM]" "!0[tcMM1]"
Else
   SetVar "[tcMM]" "[tcMM1]"
EndIf
...
Return

Case 1: Count Up

Insert this set of commands where you want the counter to be initiated …

... prefix text ; leave blank if not required
SetVar "[tcPrefix]" "Elapsed Time:"
... suffix text ; leave blank if not required
SetVar "[tcSuffix]" ""
...
... starting value (normally 0)
SetVar "[tcStart]" "5"
... refresh rate (number of seconds between updates)
SetVar "[tcRefresh]" "2"
... ending value (stop count when this value is reached)
SetVar "[tcStop]" "72000"
... variable to force termination before [tcStop] is reached
SetVar "[tcEndIt]" "False"
... subroutine to be called when display is stopped
... leave blank if not required
SetVar "[tcDoneRoutine]" "gkAllDone"
...
... now start the display
TimerStart "tc" "1000*[tcRefresh]"

In this case, the count up will begin at 0:00:05 … refresh every 2 seconds … and if not forced earlier, stop at 2:00:00 … and will trigger an external subroutine called gkAllDone when terminated.

If your applications need to invoke this facility frequently, you could create a VisualNEO function like …

Call "gkTC" "Elapsed Time:" "" "5" "2" "99000" "False" "gkAllDone"


And here is the code for the (optional) gkAllDone subroutine that you would place in the SubRoutines section of your App …

:gkAllDone
AlertBox "All Done" "[tcPrefix] [tcHH]:[tcMM]:[tcSS] [tcSuffix]"
Return

That is all.

If your application requires that the display count be prematurely terminated, all you need is a command like …

SetVar "[tcEndIt]" "True"

Case 2: Count Down

Insert this set of commands where you want the counter to be initiated …

... prefix text ; leave blank if not required
SetVar "[tcPrefix]" "Counting Down:"
... suffix text ; leave blank if not required
SetVar "[tcSuffix]" "remaing ..."
...
... starting value (1 hour 1 minute and 15 seconds)
SetVar "[tcStart]" "3675"
... refresh rate (number of seconds between updates)
SetVar "[tcRefresh]" "1"
... ending value (stop count when this value is reached)
SetVar "[tcStop]" "1"
... variable to force termination before [tcStop] is reached
SetVar "[tcEndIt]" "False"
... subroutine to be called when display is stopped
... leave blank if not required
SetVar "[tcDoneRoutine]" ""
...
... now start the display
TimerStart "tc" "1000*[tcRefresh]"

In this case, the count down will begin at 1:01:15 … refresh every 1 second … and if not forced earlier, stop at 0:00:01 … and will not trigger any external subroutine when terminated.